We hope the first couple weeks of the school year have been wonderful for your kid(s) and family so far. While you’ve been busy readjusting to the back-to-school schedules, our team at SF Parent Coalition has been busy focusing on the district-level goings-on and distilling that information for you.
But first, don’t miss the opportunity to get these upcoming SF Parents events and happenings on your calendar:
Community Meeting with SF Parents: Learn about what’s happening with SFUSD’s budget and how upcoming school closures will impact our students and our schools, weigh in on our budget campaign, and learn ways to get your voice heard. Via Zoom on September 5th at 12 pm. RSVP here
Mayoral Candidates Speak Up on Public Education: Though education is often an afterthought in the local conversation around November’s election and priorities for the city, we’re lifting it up as a top issue. Come hear from the five candidates for mayor–London Breed, Mark Farrell, Daniel Lurie, Aarin Peskin, and Ahsha Safai–on Monday September 16th who will each share more about their positions on and vision for SF public education. RSVP here
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Campaign news
Years of parent advocacy hasn’t moved SFUSD far enough to get them to take seriously the threat of state takeover. As we saw this past June, the California Department of Education (CDE) moved in one step closer to full takeover, and it’s already having negative effects on our students and schools. Haven’t been able to get that new teacher or para hired at your school? That’s thanks to CDE’s involvement, which is ultimately the result of SFUSD not balancing its budget, year after year. (Note: The Board of Education oversees these decisions — pay close attention to the four seats open in this November’s election!)
THANK YOU, parent and caregivers, for your input as we launch an official budget campaign. Collectively, we will hold SFUSD accountable to budget fixes through our parent-led campaign, Fix the Budget, Fund the Future. Please participate! Join our Facebook forum to share your thoughts, and attend our meetings. Things we’re hearing from you so far:
- You don’t want the state to take over our schools
- You want transparency (more of it!) from SFUSD on what they are deciding and HOW they are making those decisions
- You want to see a clear tie between SFUSD budget decisions and goals for improved student outcomes
- You want fully resourced schools–a qualified classroom teacher for every class, SPED supports for our kids with IEPs, social workers/SEL support, nurses, art, music, computer, library, a world language
- You want a minimum number of AP classes and variety of elective options (high schools) and counselors (middle and high)
- You want–if impacted by school closures–to have certainty that:
- your school community will not be divided, but kept together
- your newly assigned school will be welcoming + will provide an excellent education for your student
- your newly assigned school will be in close proximity
- What else do you want? Please participate in this important campaign and get your voice heard. Email us at [email protected] to get more involved, or join the conversation in our Facebook forum
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The Board of Education held a special meeting on Tuesday August 27th, where they heard updates from Superintendent Dr. Wayne and staff on the “Resource Alignment Initiative” (ed jargon for how the district plans to close schools and shift funds to ensure SFUSD is only operating fully-staffed and fully-resourced schools).
The room was packed with teachers, families, and community members. Public commenters voiced a range of concerns, particularly focused on the trauma to students and families that school closures would cause, and how these decisions might disproportionately affect low-income, immigrant, and Black and Brown families. Many called for more transparency and several asked how the district plans to keep and attract families at SFUSD.
Superintendent Wayne addressed the Board of Education and explained how aligning resources more effectively will address staffing shortages, promote teacher collaboration, and improve staffing for language pathway programs. He mentioned that since the start of SFUSD’s resource alignment efforts, the district has already identified $103 million in budget-balancing solutions, but they still need to cut another $113 million by the 2025-2026 school year.
Overall, the Board of Education commissioners conveyed in response that they still have more questions than answers, and they need much more information before approving the plan in December.
Can’t make it to the Board of Education meetings? Mark our newsletters as important in your inbox to ensure you don’t miss a future Board Report from SF Parent Coalition!
Want to join us for a future Board of Education meeting? Email [email protected] to join us virtually or in-person at the next one.
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A Big Kudos to SFUSD for launching its Ready, Set, Read initiative to fund teacher institutes to support them with the new literacy curriculum that’s being rolled out across SFUSD’s PK-8 classrooms! Spark, the fundraising arm of SFUSD, launched a 3-year $5M initiative, already with $500K committed by Mimi and Peter Haas Fund, to support teacher training.
Our SF Kids Can’t Wait campaign has been noticed even all the way up at the state level, and SF Parent Coalition was invited to join a statewide coalition of partners focused on improving literacy outcomes for kids across California. We’re proud to be represented at the California Early Literacy Coalition by Bianca Rowden Quince, an SFUSD mom and super education advocate. Here’s what she had to say about why she took on this opportunity:
“‘Literacy and justice for all’ is the rally cry we learned while stumping on Capitol Hill with the National Parents Union. Unfortunately, we learned that those words do not ring true nationally, statewide, and locally. Many kids are still not reading at grade-level, even in our own city. Literacy is one of the greatest gifts for our children and should be an educational right. Yet, many go without that achievement. Advocating for critical literacy support, resources, and care is important for all SFUSD families. I look forward to partnering with the Early Literacy Coalition to ensure that “Literacy and Justice for all” becomes a reality for ALL of our kids.” –Bianca Rowden Quince, SFUSD mom and SF Parents Leader
Does your kids’ teacher have feedback on how the SFUSD literacy adoption process is going so far, and what additional support they’d like to have? Share our feedback form with them!
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That’s all for this week.
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